About Me

The Write Stuff Teaching was created to share unique and fresh teaching ideas, resources, tips and information with elementary teachers. The focus has always been on developing the whole child through social and emotional learning, sharing rich and comprehensive curricula, differentiating for the learners in your classroom which leads to an engaged learning environment. You will find topics and resources that you can relate to and that apply to your classroom. Teach with confidence and know that you have the write stuff.

When It All Started

In today’s busy world, we can surely get caught up in wanting to do more in our classrooms. The problem is that more often than not, that leads to more time, more planning, more prep for you and not necessarily more learning for the students. This is why I created my blog The Write Stuff Teaching and my Teachers Pay Teachers store The Write Stuff back in 2012. I felt like a hamster on a wheel. While I knew that my lessons were effective, my students were less engaged because I was doing all the thinking. So I began to turn it around and spend more time on getting to know my students, have them do more of the thinking and constructing of their own learning, which ultimately built a climate of engagement. There was nothing really out there that would help me do that in my own classroom so I started to create resources that would help me understand my students better and help my students understand themselves better.

My Blog and Resources

I really pride myself on developing resources that are easy to use yet comprehensive and promote deeper learning. If you’re anything like me, you want your students to be super thinkers, super communicators and super collaborators and that can only come when students are self aware and can self regulate. The curriculum I create almost always has an element of social and emotional learning (SEL) because I know it is that important. My blog is aptly named because writing and language is in almost everything we do and yet students often struggle with that for a myriad of reasons. It is especially important to learn these skills in the primary grades where “writing” often starts with talking, drawing and playing. More and more research is showing that for many kids, they become better readers by learning to write and not the other way around. (See Gentry, 2013 as a start.) This is why my most favorite resource and one that I put my heart and soul into is Hooked on Writing. It encompasses all the important elements: writing MINDSET (SEL), reading (mentor texts) and writing (applicable to all skills needed and also aligned to the Write Traits.

In my blog, I write about literacy, classroom management and climate, social and emotional learning, teacher wellness, integrated curriculum (PBL), theme based learning, and 21st century learning; all through the lens of engagement. You will find teaching tips and ideas; some that you can use right away and some that take a bit of time to develop in your classroom but with be well worth it in the long term. 🙂

A Little More About Me

I teach on the beautiful West Coast of Canada, not too far from Vancouver, BC. I’ve been teaching for over 20 years. I love to be outdoors and enjoying nature as well as being healthy and fit. Work-life balance is important to me. I have two amazing daughters, Kristi and Caitlin who continue to inspire me and help me grow as a Mom. My husband is a fireman and he inspires me also with his outer strength and inner, compassionate soul.

My biggest joy in teaching is when students are engaged in their learning and asking questions and wondering. Not a day goes by that I don’t have a teachable moment, in life or in a classroom, and that is what I hope to share with you here.